“Yeah,” she said. “And you?”
“Club before everything,” I said. “Then Miami. The rest of the world can burn.”
Her eyes searched my face. Something like understanding settled between us.
“And this ledger?” she asked. “Where does that fall?”
“It’s a bomb,” I said. “I’ll guard it. I’ll use it if I have to. But if it comes down to that book or my family, it burns.”
She nodded slowly. “Good,” she said. “We’re on the same page, then.”
We fell quiet.
Outside, the compound shifted in its sleep. A bike revved, then cut. Laughter floated up faintly from somewhere down the hall. A door slammed. Footsteps passed, then faded.
There was a knock a few minutes later. Short. Two taps, pause, one more.
“Come in,” Valkyrie called.
Indigo stuck her head in.
“Slow roller on the road,” she said. “Black sedan, tinted windows. Did a crawl past the fence, didn’t stop. No plates we could read. Arizona got photos. Medusa’s already pissed about it.”
Valkyrie’s jaw tightened. “They get a good look?”
“Maybe at the gate,” Indigo said. “Not inside. Wekept the girls back. They didn’t linger long enough to be brave, just long enough to be noticed.”
“Rotate watch,” Valkyrie said. “I want eyes on that direction the rest of the night. If they come back, I want make, model, dents, stickers, anything. I don’t care if they’ve got a Hello Kitty air freshener on the front fucking mirror. I want it noted.”
Indigo smirked. “Copy that,” she said. Her gaze flicked to me. “Hope you sleep good, Devil. Might be your fan club looking for you.”
“Tell them to send flowers next time,” I said.
She snorted and closed the door.
Valkyrie leaned back on her hands, staring at the ceiling for a second like she could see through it.
“They don’t know which building we’re in yet,” I said. “Just that whatever they want is somewhere in this compound.”
“Let them circle,” she said. “Sooner or later, they’ll get close enough to lose a hand.”
We let the quiet come back.
She shifted further up onto the bed, pulled her legs cross-legged, boots off now. I slid down onto the mattress, lying on my back. The air mattress whined under the movement, cheap and loud. It would kill my back in the morning.
It didn’t bother me as much as it should’ve.
The light stayed on low. Shadows softened.
At some point, her shoulders sank an inch. The lines at the corners of her eyes eased. She’dbeen awake through the night before, watching me sleep with that bag at my side. Then all day on her feet, running this place, absorbing every threat like another scar.
Her body hit its limit before her pride did.
Her head dipped once, twice. Then it tilted until she leaned back on her bed and her eyes slipped closed.
She didn’t mean to fall asleep, but she did anyway.
I watched her breathe for a while. Slow. Even. A lock of hair fell across her cheek. Without the sharpness in her gaze, she looked younger. Not soft—never soft—but less carved-up by the world. More like the girl she’d been before some asshole decided to break her wrist for existing.
